Anti-violence as Anti-crime

Crime and or corruption are so entwined with the development of our Country, The Bahamas, that we really cannot seriously ever address it. We have, as biblical language would describe it, “been born in sin and shaped in iniquity.” Aside from the more major instances of ship wrecking, bootlegging and rum running, the drug trade and money laundering, you will find today that even the most sanctimonious among us are on their way to the “satellite man” because their illegal feed has been “hit” or out of necessity, even “Granny” is breaking some traffic laws in Nassau just to make it home. So when the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham says, “Indeed, we need to develop a zero-tolerance level for crime – all crime – including petty crime…” does this mean that as the leader of the Free National Movement and Prime Minister of our Nation, he will see to it that no more votes are procured through the inducement of money and gifts during general elections?

What we can address is violence. The big question we must find the will to ask ourselves is “Why are we all so angry?” I know it to be more important to some members of the Governing Free National Movement to, by all means and any means, lock away as many of our Black fathers, brothers and sons, as opposed to committing more resources to restorative programmes and measures designed to get at the root cause of our societal dysfunctions. But how long before we understand that the violence exhibited by the young frustrated Black youth who finds his power in a gun or knife, is not very different from the violence exhibited by even some of our so-called leaders, whose power is in governmental and ministerial privileges conferred upon them. While it is not illegal to publicly embarrass or change the quality of life of someone by publicly firing them as part of one’s victory speech, and while it is not illegal to steal bread from the mouths of the innocent through victimization, all of these acts of violence contribute to the overall breakdown of our society because someone has inappropriately and mercilessly exercised momentary power over another. And in many cases this has been the behavior of choice because so many of us are naturally so very angry – with life.

Indeed, we need to develop a zero-tolerance level for violence – all violence. It would be better for our Prime Minister to lead the charge in this regard. Its really a losing battle if he does not. Out there in the streets, in our schools even in our homes, it isn’t some proverbial “rabbit” who has the proverbial “gun.” Out here, the guns are real! And just as it is almost impossible to reason with some House of Assembly representative who has abandoned all civility and common decency on a Wednesday afternoon, it is almost impossible to convince our young people to choose kinder, gentler methods of conflict resolution.

The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham however, holds a special power. His style and rough demeanor has resonated with and in so many thousands of angry Bahamians who needed a poster boy for revenge. He can inspire at least 48% of the voting population to choose peace as a way of life by merely telling them to or through leading by example. No better person then to launch a successful national anti-violence as an anti-crime movement, which would capture the words of that most instructive song, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” No doubt ‘Funky D’ or some other artist can do a remake of the song to make it more relevant to Bahamian times, “Let there be peace in The Bahamas and let it begin in the HIP (Hubert Ingraham Party).”

What’s peace without laughter?

Trust or economic Thrust?

As interested as I have become in the affairs of predominately Black societies, for a long time it was my European heritage of which I was most boastful. Whether the lineage of my maternal or paternal grandmothers, Grant and McCoy of Scotland or that my grandfather while he carried the name Hall, was raised by his grandfather, Jimmy Wells of Long Island, somehow being able to point to White ancestry gave a sense of pride. When I speak therefore, of the UBP influence alive today behind the scenes of the governing Free National Movement, it is done so not out of some hidden anti-White racist motivation but because slavery, just as the discrimination endured by the ordinary majority in this Country pre 1967, was about economics/money and not about race. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. It is that evil that worries me at this juncture in our development as a people, and that evil which causes my disappointment at the level of support won by the FNM in the past general elections. But money was responsible for that victory as well.

The allegations of conflict of interest surrounding the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Brent Symonette, son of Sir Roland Symonette is an indication of the kind of agenda men like himself are passionate about. And while at the end of the day those allegations may be dismissed as “small things”, what it all represents is the fundamental difference between the principles of Governance as espoused by the Progressive Liberal Party, and the principles that were embedded within the FNM when they joined hands with the fallen UBP.

As angry as so many may continue to be with the PLP because of the sins of some of the sons of the organization, you will find that the overarching principles of advancing the cause and championing the rights of the ordinary majority, whether through education, healthcare, economic empowerment or social welfare, remain paramount to the organization. This fundamental distinction is not so for the FNM. While the personalities of those selected to lead the FNM are sometimes more appealing, that very sinister motive which places things before people, that agenda which denied the majority political empowerment for as long as it could, still comes shining through as the primary thrust of the ones who call the tune of the FNM.

These are critical times for the ordinary majority. We are not as far along socially and economically as we should have been. Some indicators of our rampant deterioration as a society or network of communities is in our violent crime rates, our literacy levels and poor high school performance, and even in our risky and unhealthy lifestyles. On one hand the Country is poised to make a dramatic boom towards economic and infrastructural development, its entire landscape will undergo spectacular change within the next fifteen or so years. On the other hand there is the very real threat that its people as we are now defined, in the majority, will be left behind and relegated to a low waged working class. The potential of one day owning our economy is quickly slipping through our proverbial fingers.

The Party who was founded to go the extra mile to protect and ensure the viable future of our ordinary majority, the PLP who though not perfect, was committed in more recent years to bringing restoration to our communities, through initiatives like Urban Renewal and educational reform, and national health insurance and a myriad of second chance programs is forced now to be a strong Opposition in the face of an economic thrust agenda seeped in conflict of interest. But no greater conflict than this, that while the Deputy Prime Minister and his kind are out to make themselves even more wealthy, you will find that they have ordered that this Government is not allowed to spend money on “foolishness.” And when you examine what that foolishness really is, you will find that it is anything that gives that added compassion and inspiration needed to lift the ordinary majority to new levels of pride and productivity.

No! This is no era of “Trust.” We are stuck for a little while in a cold and unkind economic thrust. It is that damn love of money ……. Evil!

Black Like Who?

"I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Personal growth and change is a lengthy and illusive process. During the years of metamorphosis, because we do not get the luxury of the cocoon experience like the caterpillar which becomes the butterfly, the outward appearance can look quite paradoxical. To the observing human eye, the person undergoing change can by his/her behaviour appear to be changing for the worse while truly, God may very well be dealing with the heart. I am holding out hope that despite what can be seen of the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, particularly during the House of Assembly proceedings on Wednesday past, internally, it is all a part of his transformation of becoming a better man. However, I am known to be a fool in this regard, believing in the good of others, after all I walk around convinced that we as a people can pull ourselves together sufficiently to become a First World Country. But then, Ingraham never said that he was changing, he self confessed to have been changed, as though he admits that there were aspects about him that had to be done away with.

The Hon. Brent Symonette, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, son of former UBP Premier, Roland Symonette, and heir apparent to the FNM throne, must find it all amusing. There he was nudging, whispering, and sitting next to his new found friend and co-conspirator Prime Minister, who once had to relieve him of his duties in a prior FNM Administration, for what common, ordinary people call thiefin’, as Ingraham led in what became an all out personal attack session nearing the end of the proceedings on October 3. But then Mr. Ingraham did the strangest thing. After having already laid on the Table of the House of Assembly, the 18 heads of agreement negotiated under the Christie led Administration, which only proved that Christie had really been working, and after having made light of the plight of the so many people and their children who are suffering because they are no longer employed in the civil service, from his seat and therefore, off the record, Mr. Ingraham retorted to an Opposition Member that he was, “Black just like you.” “I Black just like you!” Of course his hellish laugh accompanied the statement, as it was loud and boisterous all day long, only confirming that nothing much has changed – yet.

There have always been at least three kinds of Black people. You have the kind that savagely captured neighboring Blacks of other tribes and sold them to Whites into what became the slave trade. These are similar to the ones who undermined the many attempts at uprising against slavery and other forms of racial oppression, even in modern day. Then you have the class of Blacks who are in the majority, they follow whatever is popular at any given historical moment, whether it is a time of passivity or great revolution. Finally, you have a small percentage of Black people who know that the road to freedom is long. And, we are conscious that Black people the world over no matter the appearance of privilege, remain on this journey to true freedom because systems of capitalism and trade so design that there is still no level playing field for Blacks, when it comes to wealth as power. Without economic empowerment, although we can vote and even be elected to Government, our people are still relegated to a second class existence, the apathy of which leads to a displaced energy and the many subsequent social ills which hamper the full success of our Predominately Black societies.

So the question I ask, in all fairness to the man, in whose goodness I choose now to believe, is “Black like who?” When you proclaim to be Black, which kind of Black are you? I know its none of my business ultimately, so just whisper the answer to the one who sits as your co and deputy in our Honourable House of Assembly to your left. After all, he now shares in our African heritage too.

when Partisan Ludicrous Politics invokes the Fury of Noble Men

The family wealth of the former Premier, the late Roland Symonette, yes, the Honorable Brent Symonette’s father, was accumulated through the very lucrative but illegal venture of Rum Running. This is no indictment, as the economy of The Bahamas has always been boosted or maintained by some less than legitimate scheme, usually because of our geographical make-up and our being a stone’s throw from the United States. I had a grand uncle who died on a rum running “excursion” leaving West End, Grand Bahama, headed to the Eastern U.S. sea-board, God rest his soul. When you think about it, Rum Running was to that era, what the drug trade is to ours – except, a Rum Runner could emerge Premier while we castigate (as we should) the smuggler of today’s illegal drugs of choice. Additionally, the major players and beneficiaries of our Rum Running days were White or near White. And, although, there are some Whites or near Whites benefiting from the Bahamian facet of the drug trade, most of the major players are what you would consider, indisputably Black.

This particular article however, is not about the Bahamian drug trade or Rum Running. I actually want to talk about Partisan Politics as perhaps an even greater contributor than the drug trade, to the breakdown of Bahamian society. History reflects that when Rum Running was boosting our economy (and the pockets of those who emerged our leaders), the ordinary majority was becoming drunk with the kind of spirit that was hell bent on building a more just society, a truly better Bahamas, while near the end of the seventies, clearly into the eighties and thereon, the proceeds from drugs and its many scourges became tools in the hands of an ordinary majority, already high on the stuff that would aid in tearing us all down. This terrible “fix” was born just after Majority Rule in 1967, when the “Dissident Eight” eventually reestablished themselves as a political force with the “Symonettes,” and his kind, the UBP, Bay Street Boys, who never wanted to see the ordinary majority attain certain rights and freedoms, and moreover never wanted the ordinary majority to own a substantial piece of the economic pie. Some historians justify the actions of those PLP’s, known as the Dissident Eight, who moved a vote of no-confidence against Sir Lynden Pindling not long into his tenure as Premier, some justify the subsequent backlash levied against these freedom fighters, which forced them out of the PLP and eventually into the pockets of those they years prior, fearlessly wrestled on behalf of their people.

Every FNM I know has some personal reason as to why he/she is angry with the PLP. “You don’t know what they did to my mother!” is the kind of answer I get when I question an FNM supporter or “mother” is replaced with some family member. Sometimes, like the Dissident Eight and their supporters or those like the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, the response becomes, “You don’t know what they did to me!” And with this kind of response is ever present the bitterness, unforgiveness, and honest hurt in the voices of those scorned. It is the kind of pain that is only momentarily quelled when the PLP is defeated at the polls, the kind of pain that led/leads to those heated elections where family stops talking to family, and neighbours stop being neighbours, and Christians take a little break from Christianity. This coupled with an out of hand drug trade, is responsible for the crumbling of our “Gibraltar.” What came first, the spite or the vengeance? That debate would perhaps spark an all out war. One thing however, has not changed: while the ordinary have remained ordinary because we have been busily at odds with each other, a certain group of old friends and colleagues, hiding behind angry and hurting ordinary faces, have continued to secure their very substantial portion of this economic empire.

The PLP can never re-sensitize the Bahamian electorate about the historical injustices levied against us by the UBP (and it has to), until it effectively deals with the division, personal and national heartaches it has caused to so many others, itself. In its new age of compassion or attempt at compassion, the headship of the PLP must lead in the restoration of a kinder, gentler Bahamas by taking responsibility for the not so glorious actions of an over-all glorious past. “We Are Sorry” will go a long way in starting the process of healing so badly needed not just from the realm of our political culture but on all levels of Bahamian community and family life. “We Are Sorry” is a phrase that so many gone into the dust longed to hear, and so many living among us, PLPs as well, wish they could now hear, in many instances, just for peace of mind. A few on that long list may include, members of the Dissident Eight, the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, and from recent readings, even Mr. Oswald Brown. Because, there is a greater struggle before us now that requires a solidarity achievable only through the reconciliation of our past, as was reiterated by the Hon. Arthur Hanna, who when sworn in as Governor General, said that the past is behind us “it is the future which beckons us come.” But until we change the formula so that more of us are able to own our economy, which is what the Christie PLP administration attempted to usher in, we have little control over our beckoning future. And, sadly, until we return to a more peaceful and unified collective frame of mind, we cannot change the formula.

lyc … etv!